Seven West Media profits plunge 91pc on writedowns

Seven West Media's first-half profits fell 91 per cent to $12.4 million due to a write down in the value of its Yahoo7 digital business, the sale of several youth magazines and the news channel on Sky News, and exiting the Presto on-demand movie channel.

Underlying profit fell 32 per cent to $96 million from the previous first half and revenue rose 1.4 per cent to $905 million. The dividend will be kept at 2¢.

Speaking to analysts, investors and journalists on Wednesday morning, chief executive Tim Worner indicated he didn't want to talk about his affair with former executive assistant Amber Harrison.

Seven West Media chief executive Tim Worner. Daniel Munoz

"I have apologised for what did happen," he said, "and we don't wish to give anymore oxygen to things that did not happen.

"We have not been distracted… our performance has been unwavering."

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One of the company's problems was a 10 per cent increase in costs, driven by expensive television productions and the 2016 Rio Olympics.

At the Seven television network profits fell 23 per cent, despite a 5 per cent increase in revenue, because of the jump in costs. Profits at the West newspaper business fell 38 per cent, hit by declining circulation and the weak West Australian economy.

Yahoo hit

At the Yahoo7 digital business profit fell 40 per cent - a big drop for a part of the media industry that is growing elsewhere. The company blamed less interest in high-margin display ads.

"Initiatives have been undertaken throughout the period to reduce the cost base of the business to reflect the revenue environment," the company said.

The profit fall won't be as big in the second half and the television advertising market is growing this month and in March for the first time since 2014, the company said.

Seven has obtained an injunction prohibiting Ms Harrison from talking or disclosing information about the company. On Wednesday Seven director Jeff Kennett published an article setting out Seven's side of the dispute.

He said the company paid Ms Harrison close to $330,000 as compensation for any damage caused by her relationship with Mr Worner, and $50,000 to her lawyers. Mr Worner had his pay docked $100,000.

"Under the circumstances, Ms Harrison has been treated extremely well by SWM for a relationship that she entered freely and which she continued for less than two years. This is not an issue of gender," Mr Kennett wrote in The Australian.

"Had I been on the board of SWM when these matters were being decided, I would not have been so generous with shareholders' funds — but I accept the decision makers acted generously, partly because of Ms Harrison's alleged fragility."

Ms Harrison and her supporters have portrayed the conflict as about power relations between men and women in the workplace.

"It isn't fair that women suffer while men are coddled and protected," feminist Clementine Ford wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald.

"And it isn't right that the majority of the public's enthusiasm for shaming is heaped on them, either. Harrison might be experiencing both of those things right now, but she isn't going down without a fight. Seven West would do well to heed that."

More than 10,000 people poured into the nation's capital on the ninth day of protests over police brutality, but what awaited them was a city that no longer felt as if it was being occupied by its own country's military.

A huge share of the company's outdoor advertising bookings for April and May were pushed into the second half of the year after travel and social restrictions because of COVID-19 slashed people's movements.